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AB: But that has very clear roles offered to the participants.
MF: Yes, I suppose, the living through can blur into other approaches. You
know, I did a Salem drama way back with my students. I didn’t structure it
exactly as Gavin does. I remember the girls in the woods turned on one of the
students in the room and said he was molesting them. Maybe it was because
I was not skilled enough in handling that drama. It actually became very
uncomfortable in the real social context. That was quite a big moment for
me. I wasn’t a young teacher, but I was a young university teacher, probably
1988 I am going back to. That worried me that the people were not protected
into role enough, and that I didn’t set it up well enough. It was worrying.
It was definitely a living through drama. We got over it but it was really
uncomfortable as this person was a kind of an outsider in the group. There
was a hint of feeling that maybe he is a child molester — not as specific as that
but it was just in the air. It was almost a form of bullying. [...]
The question that is going through my mind, and maybe I will write
something about this in a year’s time, is if I had said: we will enact, we will
accuse him and we all know that that is going to happen in advance, then
is the learning more real, less real, as real? That would be an interesting
question. I can see an argument for saying that an approach of that kind is
very cerebral (?), and it wouldn’t be as emotionally gripping. Because one of
the advantages of living through is the intensity of emotion. That is something
I need to think about.
AB: It is very interesting to put that together with Bond, because in his plays
he has a lot of stage directions. And he says the creativity is not in what they
are doing, but in how they are doing it. And the stage directions helps them
stage in the complexity of the situation.
MF: I thought looking at Bond is very-very interesting, especially because in
the history of living through it was perceived as the other end of the spectrum
from theatre. As I said to you, I am not as informed about Bond’s work as
I should be. But I think that has got great potential.
AB: What about process drama compared to living through? How do you see
Cecily O’Neill’s work. Because she has a lot of unfolding situations, but she
structures in a very different way. Very theatrical in a way actually.
MF: I think I always find the terminology of process drama very odd, actually
the term itself. Because it is not all process, there are outcomes and products,
and mini-performances and structures and so on. It sends a slightly wrong
message to the outside world. And it feels like it says we are not about theatre
and performance somehow. That is why I feel a bit uncomfortable with the term.
So call it something else. I am not saying it should be called integrated, that is
just a construct. Call it drama, we are doing drama. Or theatre.
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